Boat Over Troubled Water
by Lady Nephenee Ranulf
Summary: Adrift on a houseboat on the high seas, Kratos and Lloyd set some things straight with a little help from Colette. Skit-inspired AU post-game one shot, pure oyako with LloydColette on the side


Har, har, har...bad Simon and Garfunkel reference.

Disclaimers apply, etc.

* * *

Boat Over Troubled Water

It was night upon the oceans of Aselia. The sun had gone down in a brilliant array of reds and oranges a couple hours or so before, leaving in its wake the inky depths of a world in darkness. In such a world, unpolluted by the gleaming lights of innumerous cities, the stars shone with all their might.

Kratos's eyes were not focused on their gleam, however. He merely swept over a familiar patch of white light, striving to find the few remaining globes he had never accounted for. Stars to the untrained eye all looked alike, but to a man who had been staring at them for nearly eternity, their individual looks were as different as night and day.

Beneath him, the wooden floor of the boat rocked up and down with the tempo of the waves, the planks creaking in time. This boat was Lloyd's, every inch of it. By some remarkable force of will he'd been compelled to come aboard it and now he was here, surrounded by Lloyd everywhere. It was almost poetic: a vague promise he'd made on a journey he'd expected to be routine had turned into a reality only several months later. So much had changed; if he were a cat, he would have begun his next life the instant he stepped onto the ship.

"So Dad, how are you liking it? Neat boat, right?"

Kratos said nothing as his son sidled up next to him, searching his face vainly for some expression of approval in the dim light of the lanterns hanging from hooks on the face of their 'house'. He kept his eyes on the dark ocean in front of them.

Lloyd, unsatisfied with this lack of reaction, persisted.

"What's out there to look at?" He peered into the semi-darkness, trying to make something out of the scenery of night. "Is your vision really that good?"

"Ever the inquisitive one, I see." Kratos took this time to make his entrance into the conversation.

"Well, I mean—hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Lloyd pouted, directing a short glare at his father.

The older man smiled, although it was hard to see in the dark. "It means you ask a lot of questions."

"…that's not a bad thing." His son sounded mildly offended.

"Did I say it was?"

"Er…no?" Lloyd scratched the back of his head sheepishly. He looked back toward Kratos, who still stared out as impassively as ever. "But seriously, Dad, what are you doing out here?"

"I am enjoying the view," Kratos replied innocuously.

"But there's nothing to see out here," Lloyd said slowly. "It's night time." His tone of voice suggested that he thought that Kratos had perhaps lost his mind, or was having a stupid moment. (And perhaps it took one to know one?)

Kratos responded by wordlessly pointing his finger out toward the horizon. Lloyd's eyes slowly trailed from the tip of his father's index finger to…

"Oh. Star gazing."

"Very perceptive of you."

It sounded like a compliment, but Lloyd could tell from the way Kratos had said it that he was laughing at him, albeit internally. It took either a massive blow to the head or something full-out ridiculous to even merit a quiet moment of real laughter from the man.

"Well geez, thanks."

They stood in silence, father and son, watching the night sky as the boat drifted along. The world fell quiet along with them, as if waiting with bated breath to see the rest of their encounter.

"The boat is pleasant enough."

Lloyd jumped at the intrusion of his father's voice. "What? What? Oh—yeah, it's great, huh? Dad and I built it- well, not - well, not _you_, Dad, but Dirk and—oh, you know what I mean."

Words were falling out of his mouth before he had a chance to really know what he was saying, and suddenly Lloyd wished he could have rewound that last bit of talking. He really didn't need to make a fool out of himself in front of Kratos, Mr. I'm-So-Cool, every five seconds.

"I do." If he had been amused, Kratos hid it well as always. His hand rested lightly on the rail. "It's a well-crafted ship. Your skill surprised me."

"Oh come on, everyone knows I'm the one to go to for this kind of stuff. I'm a hands-on kind of guy." Lloyd puffed out his chest proudly. "All I need are the plans, and I can build anything."

Kratos laughed quietly. "But you never were one to follow directions."

And just like that Lloyd deflated. "Hey," he began, "just because I like to…uh…_improvise_ a bit sometimes doesn't mean I'm a bad listener!"

Leave it to Kratos to stick a pin precisely into the bubble that was his ego.

"That's not always a bad thing either, Lloyd," Kratos said pointedly.

"It isn't? But you made it sound—okay, you have got to stop doing that." The young swordsman crossed his arms authoritatively.

"Doing what?" If it were daytime, Lloyd might have been able to see one of Kratos's eyebrows arch delicately upward.

"Making things sound like insults all the time!" Lloyd declared heatedly.

"…does my tongue honestly come across as that barbed?"

"Your tongue does what?" As usual, Lloyd was having a comprehension issue.

Kratos sighed. He had not reached the point where he had to count firmly to ten, but sometimes Lloyd could be a bit…exasperating. "Do I honestly sound that" -he searched his mind for a word that was not a) overly pretentious or b) idiotically simple- "…callous?"

Well, it was worth a shot.

"I get those on my hands," Lloyd said knowingly.

…oh woe. "Harsh, I mean."

This apparently had the desired effect. "Well, sometimes. I mean, maybe it's just because of how we met- you know, back at the temple near Iselia? We…kind of got off on a bad foot there; I guess I've just always been sort of on edge around you."

"Is that so." Normally that should have been phrased as a question, but with Kratos it had always managed to come out as a flat statement.

"Yeah, that's…so," Lloyd replied hesitantly.

This time Kratos's laugh was more evident. "You don't need to echo me, Lloyd."

"Uh, sorry." Lloyd reddened.

They drifted into another period of silence. Whatever stars Kratos happened to be looking at, they apparently were the most interesting ones he'd seen in a while, for so far he had yet to turn his head to look at Lloyd directly.

Lloyd looked back toward the small house installed on the boat. "Oh hey, I think Colette's rustling us up a snack." He was accurate in that someone was currently rattling about in the kitchen.

Kratos did not bother to look. "Mm…" His hearing already verified for him everything that Lloyd was merely surmising.

It was only a matter of minutes before Colette burst out of the door juggling three mugs on a tray on one hand and a lantern clutched in the other. "Hey, you two, just thought I'd bring you both a little something to warm—oops!"

True to form, she tripped, flailing as she sought to keep both the mugs and the lantern from crashing to the ground and herself upright.

"Ack!" Lloyd raced to the rescue, but thankfully Colette had regained her balance- and thus averted disaster- before his aid was needed.

"That was close, Colette," he said as he accepted a mug from her.

Colette smiled as usual as she handed over another mug to Kratos. "It was, huh?"

"You had me really scared for a minute there," Lloyd professed before taking a huge gulp of whatever was in the mug…and promptly scalding his tongue on the hot chocolate. "Agh!"

Kratos reined in a comment and took a small sip. "Thank you, Colette."

The blond beamed. "You're welcome! It looked a bit chilly out here, and there's never a bad time for hot chocolate."

"I agree."

"Guys, a little sympathy?" Lloyd begged.

Kratos sighed and frowned; Colette immediately bounded over. "Oh, Lloyd, you should have taken a smaller sip!"

"You could have told me that sooner!"

"And saved ourselves the amusement?" Kratos asked.

"Hey Dad, what'd I say about you and being all snooty?" Lloyd was glaring daggers; Kratos could feel them.

"My apologies."

Colette giggled. "You two are so cute!"

Father and son turned simultaneously to both share their disapproval of that particular statement.

"Aw, Colette…!"

"I see nothing cute about this situation."

It was in that particular moment that Colette saw a light turn on- figuratively, of course. Before, it had always been odd to consider Lloyd Kratos's son or vice versa: the two had always seemed such polar opposites that to most who had traveled with either one of them there seemed no comprehensible way to explain their bond by blood. Where Lloyd was passionate Kratos remained stoic. Where Kratos shied away Lloyd stepped up. But at that moment, with both of them giving her equally peeved looks (and acting like utter _babies_, but she wasn't about to tell them that!), Colette could not help but see their resemblance: the firm set of their frown, the furrowed brow following the same lines, the similar jaw line.

In that moment, she could do nothing but smile and beam at the both of them, the two who had come so far. They had been complete strangers not so long ago, but now it was clear to see where one was growing into the other.

"Hey, Colette?" Lloyd's tentative question caused the former Chosen to blink and cut off her line of contemplation, although it had been nothing close to what Kratos was capable of.

"Huh? Oh, sorry…I must have drifted off for a bit there." She noticed that Kratos, having sufficiently (and unknowingly) indulged his younger tendencies, was now resuming his nighttime vigil.

Lloyd folded his arms. "You had that look in your eyes again."

"What look?" Colette feigned innocence, although unfortunately she easily fell into the category of people who could be read without much effort at all.

"The one that _definitely_ says 'you're being cute'- like the one you give puppies," Lloyd said accusatorily. "And don't say I could have been wrong because it was dark, because the lighting's really good."

"Well it's true," Colette replied brightly. "I mean, I just never see you two really acting like family so it was just so wonderful! I can tell you two really care about each other." Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Kratos wince, the movement noticeable to angelic eyes. Was that from guilt or discomfort?

"Uh…" Lloyd being a man, this whole 'family' business was suddenly getting rather touchy-feely. "You're welcome, Colette…I think. Uh…"

"The moon is particularly bright tonight," Kratos cut in smoothly, trying to disrupt the current flow of the conversation, even if it involved tactics that could be called less subtle than Zelos's flirting. He had a method for this interruption, though: as much as he admittedly did care about Lloyd, Kratos was still uncomfortable with the actual notion of them being a family. By all means he was meant to be drifting along with Derris Kharlan at this exact moment, and yet he had stayed behind for an ideal that he had never truly considered.

Lloyd caught on to his father's intentions, and he quickly gazed skyward. "Yeah, you're right. It's really nice." With the gentle rocking of the sea, it combined for quite the romantic atmosphere- not that he wanted to admit that in front of _Kratos_ of all people. If it were just Colette and him, no doubt he'd be more inclined.

Oblivious though she could be, Colette was not so dense to miss a blatant change of subject when it practically hit her in the face. Her own nature, however, thankfully prevented her from making any sort of derisive comment about it, and so she happily joined the father and son in looking to the night heavens. "Wow, it's so big!"

"So it is," Kratos agreed. He had traversed the planet countless times in both its original and separated forms, and yet the sky above had never seemed boring, even if he had counted nearly all the stars to be seen. "And to think I might have left this," he added under his breath.

Lloyd, by some trick of the ear, managed to hear him. "Oh that's right- you were going to leave…" He tensed when he saw Kratos twitch ever so.

Kratos exhaled slowly. "So I was. But I chose not to; there is no point in dwelling on what could have been." There was a certain amount of guilt he had tied to it as well: shame over abandoning the rest of Cruxis and for even considering leaving his son once more so quickly. There was no winning situation either way his mind presented it, so he chose to ignore it, to push it, like so many other memories, into the recesses of his mind.

"Yeah, that's the spirit," Lloyd said encouragingly, not knowing his father's real reasons for avoiding the topic. "But you know, I didn't think Colette and I could be so persuasive. Usually when you make up your mind about something, you kind of go through with it."

"I'm getting soft, then," Kratos said, glancing askance.

"Well, Lloyd and I are really happy to have you here with us," Colette chirped. "You should have seen how excited Lloyd was when he told me you were coming along! He nearly knocked me over!" She remembered how Lloyd had dashed all the way to her house from Dirk's, almost running over Phaidra and about a dozen other villagers in the process as well. The swordsman could be incredibly single-minded when he wanted to.

"Aw, Colette, stop embarrassing me!" Lloyd blushed, although it wasn't visible. "I wasn't _that _excited."

A lie: he would never admit it to Colette, but in addition to near trampling all of Iselia to the ground, he'd also given Kratos a hug bordering on bone-crushing. The older swordsman had stiffened on contact, had almost pulled away from Lloyd out of pure instinct, but eventually he'd relaxed enough to tentatively wrap his arms around his son.

"But Lloyd, it's not like it's a bad thing," Colette pointed out.

"W-well, of course it isn't, but you know, you don't need to tell him about…you know…_that_." Hadn't he just resolved several minutes ago to stop making himself seem the fool in front of Kratos?

"Oh, I'm sorry!"

Kratos watched wistfully from the sidelines as Lloyd continued to flounder around Colette. To be that free in expression- it was a luxury he could never afford. Violent bursts of emotion left him feeling awkward; "opening up", which Lloyd so enthusiastically encouraged, meant discarding habits dating back from when he was a younger man, a knight who kept his liege lady's secrets.

In the end, he decided that being sociable was not for him and remained content to simply finish off his hot chocolate in lieu of speaking further.

Meanwhile, Colette and Lloyd had since "made up" and now were casting about awkwardly (or rather, Lloyd was. Colette was just fine with beaming at him until something came to his mind) for previous trains of thought.

"So, uh, where were we, Dad?"

"Your enthused reaction over my decision to stay?"

"Oh, right. Err…" To be honest, Lloyd wanted to move away from that topic _as fast as possible_.

"There was no need to be embarrassed," Kratos said, recognizing his son's discomfort. "I…appreciated it. Every bit of it."

And after saying that, he felt about the same as his son did.

"Really? I thought I might have gone a little over the top…but that's cool!" Lloyd happily downed the rest of his hot chocolate. "Ah, that was de-licious. Thanks, Colette!"

Colette giggled. "No problem! I'll take that back into the house for you, if you want." By the lantern light she took the empty mug from Lloyd before turning to Kratos. "Are you finished with yours too, Kratos?"

"Yes." His mug was handed over without another word.

"Well, guess I'll get back and clean up," Colette said. "I'll leave you two to some well-deserved bonding time!" And before either one of them could protest she had disappeared back inside the house.

Kratos and Lloyd stood on the deck for a while in a state of mild shock.

"Bonding. Hm." Kratos sounded unsure.

"Yeah." Apparently not even the gregarious Lloyd could come up with something to say either. "Um…"

"This is…awkward," the older man confessed.

"You're telling me," Lloyd said in a strained voice. "I mean, how can we talk about anything after she said _that_? You can't force these things!" He turned away, muttering about girls and how they had to butt into everything.

"Actually, Lloyd, I—" Kratos's voice caught in his throat. He had almost blurted out the issue still lingering in his mind: the concept of the two of them actually being a family- a real one.

"Huh?" Lloyd turned.

"…never mind."

"Come on, Dad; you can't pull that one on me," Lloyd cajoled. "You were going to say something; I know it."

"Honestly, Lloyd, it was nothing."

"Out with it." His son crossed his arms.

"_Lloyd_…"

"Can't use that tone of voice either," Lloyd said gleefully. "Sorry, it's just not as scary as it used to be."

Damn. Suddenly Kratos wished for the times where one glare would have been enough to stun Lloyd into silence.

"For the last time, Lloyd: _it was nothing_."

"I'm going to keep bugging you until you say it!"

He had nearly reached his breaking point, but he refused to give in. This was merely an obstacle. He could overcome it. Lloyd would not win out. "Try me."

…in hindsight, those words might have just sealed his death warrant.

Lloyd rose to the challenge. "Kratos, you know you want to…!" He pitched his voice into the sing-song tone that he knew drove his father absolutely batty. It had been proven nicely during the Journey of Regeneration.

Kratos growled in frustration: the boy knew all his weaknesses.

"All you have to do is tell me and it'll all be over; yes, it'll all be over! Just tell me and it'll all be over!"

His natural patience worn out, Kratos turned to his years of training. _Tune him out. Sink into your own thoughts._

Lloyd carried on in the same vein for about twenty more seconds before he realized that he was now talking to stone ears. "…hey, Dad?"

No response.

"Dad?"

Whatever trance Kratos had put himself into, it was very effective.

"Dad!"

Realizing that Lloyd was no longer singing, Kratos responded tentatively: "Yes?"

"Alright, I give in. Man, I swear, you can be a real rock head when you want to!"

"Thank you, I suppose." Finally, they were away from that—

"But I still want to know what you were going to say."

—or not.

Kratos sighed. "Lloyd, how many more times must I say it?"

"No, no, it's okay," Lloyd said hastily. "I'm not going to force it out of you."

"Then how exactly do you plan on figuring it out? You do understand that I probably will never feel any incentive or desire to tell you."

"Well, I'm going to pull a Professor move on you," his son declared. "I'm going to read your mind!"

Kratos blinked. "Come again?"

"I'm going to read your mind!" Lloyd's eyes shone even brighter in the lantern light. "The Professor does it all the time; she can figure out really easily if I've copied Genis's homework or something like that."

"I think the circumstances this time are substantially different."

Lloyd ignored all the big words and pressed on. "Well, basically what she does is ask you a whole lot of questions, and then based on your answers she makes a…a…" He frowned, trying to recall the word. "A…oh! A hypothesis! Yeah, she makes one of those, and man, are they spot on."

What Raine used was actually called "deductive reasoning" and "interrogation", but Kratos decided this wasn't the time to give himself a headache by explaining. "I see. So you're going to try this on me, even though I know full well what you are aiming to do."

"Yeah."

"…wonderful."

"Well, all you have to do is say 'yes' or 'no', so it'll be really easy. Trust me, Dad!"

Lloyd had missed the point, but it seemed his enthusiasm was endless. Kratos decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, partly because he realized that he did want to say what was on his mind. "Very well. Ready when you are."

"Alright! So, Dad, I'm guessing what you were going to say had to do with me."

"I wonder why."

"Hey! That's not 'yes' or 'no'!"

"Yes, in that case."

"A-ha!" Lloyd grinned. "I knew I could do this! Okay, moving on. So, now that I know what you were going to say was about me, I'm going to guess that it was also going to be about 'bonding time'."

"Yes." He was digging a deeper hole with every question; Kratos could see this.

"Score! Now the question is, what were you going to say about that?" Lloyd sank deep into thought. "No, not that…hm…tricky…"

Kratos couldn't take much more of this. "I was going to tell you that this whole affair is incredibly awkward."

"Well, of course, I mean, Colette did just kind of dump us on each other," Lloyd said.

"No, I meant me. Here. On this boat. With you and Colette."

"What?" Lloyd did a double-take. "Wait, you can't be serious! You said the boat was alright!"

Kratos ran a hand through his hair. "Lloyd, you have to understand. I'm…still adjusting to the idea of us as a 'family'. We were enemies once, and now here we are, trying to talk as if the past fourteen years never happened. My mind hasn't accepted that things have changed."

Lloyd frowned. "I don't think any of that matters."

His father blinked. "Pardon?"

"You heard me: I don't think any of that matters. We finished the journey of world regeneration a long time; we've started off with a clean slate, Dad. I don't hold anything that happened against you- honestly!"

"I thought you said earlier that you've always been on edge with me?"

Lloyd was nearly tearing his hair out in frustration. "Look," he said, almost growling. "You're my dad. You're family. That's all that matters. Whether we were enemies in the past or separated for a long time…in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't mean anything! I…" The words caught in his throat, but the swordsman pressed on. "I care about you, alright? There! Take that! You're on this boat; you wanted to be here; there shouldn't be anything awkward!"

Kratos opened and closed his mouth. There really was nothing he could say in the face of such blatant disregard for facts or numbers or _anything logical_. Lloyd was relying on pure emotion to get his point across, and somehow this connected more deeply with him than he expected.

Lloyd sighed deeply, almost in near imitation of his father. "Look, I didn't mean to yell or anything, but if you really feel that way…you know, maybe Colette has a point."

"Concerning?"

"Bonding time'."

"What about it?"

"Well, we did need some. I think there are a couple things between us that…that need straightening out. And Colette realized that."

"Her demeanor belies her intelligence," Kratos observed.

"Yeah, she's pretty," Lloyd said without thinking.

"…what?"

"I-I mean yeah, she's pretty cool and everything," he hastily amended. But it was too late: the damage was done.

"Lloyd, you don't need to hide the fact that you like Colette. I should think it fairly obvious by now." Kratos had to smile somewhat: his son, a lovesick puppy, and desperately trying to hide it. For what purpose, though? Lloyd had no fathomable reason to hide his near-worship of Colette.

Or was he experiencing the same difficulty as Kratos? That awkward distance between them was serving to complicate things indeed.

"Well, it's just that it's kind of…you know..." Lloyd was experiencing sudden difficulties in speaking properly. "Talking to your dad about a girl you like is just so…so _weird_."

This managed a low chuckle from Kratos. "Am I too old for such a topic?"

"Maybe."

"Ah, but I'm sure Colette would understand."

"That's something completely different, Dad! You can't just drop her name into this like that!"

And as they bantered, the object of their discussion turned away from the houseboat window with a smile as she went back to washing dishes.

Yes, they made a lovely family.

* * *

So this took me a little over two months to write, mostly in late-night spurts. It was sitting on my computer for a while too until I finally struck up the courage to upload it. (And the skit that inspired this never fails to make me say, "Awww...")


End file.
